The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4) (26 page)

Wade opened the backpack, pulling out my gun
and knife.

“Did you get medicine?” I asked, taking back
my weapons.

“No. We looked for you,” he told me.

I blinked and in that millisecond of darkness
flashed the image of Megan’s blood spraying as a zombie bit into
her neck. “I met someone,” I started.

“Should I be worried?” Hayden joked.

I looked at him, not at all amused.

His face went blank. “In the basement.”

I shook my head and held up my hand. “Let me
start over from the beginning. A crazy came up behind me, strangled
me with a cord until I passed out. I woke up in a storage room with
my hands tied behind my back. There was another woman down there.”
I took in a ragged breath. Hayden put his hand on my waist. “She
told me that the crazies were taking people and infecting
them.”

The buzz of insects was deafening. A
grasshopper leapt from a tall weed growing through a crack in the
pavement.

“So they’re building an army?” Jason asked,
rapping his fingers along the side of his assault rifle.

“They’re infecting them, not killing them?”
Hayden asked.

I nodded. “That’s what she told me.”

“They
are
building an army,” Wade said
quietly.

“An army of cannibalistic serial killers.
That know no pain or fear.” Jason laughed. “Nothing to worry
about.”

“Fuck this shit.” Wade’s mouth fell open and
he shook his head. “Zombies…we can handle. They’re dumb, only want
one thing. But these S1s…they can think, plan…attack.”

“How is this happening?” Hayden said, looking
around us. “Are they getting smarter?”

“I don’t think it works that way, right?” I
asked. “Maybe the virus isn’t, uh, doing what it used to?”

Hayden shuddered. “This is something Dr. Cara
can look into. I don’t want to think about it.”

“Me neither,” Wade agreed. He slid his hands
down the barrel of his gun. “Riss?” he said gently. “What happened
to that woman?”

I bit my lip. “She didn’t make it.” My
instinct was to hide the truth, to keep the guys from knowing
something that would upset them. But it felt wrong. I didn’t want
to keep anything from them. “She told me she had a child that died.
The loss was too much…” I wrapped my arms around myself. “She was
covered in bites and not crazy. I told her some people are
resistant and that she had to be one of them. When she found out
she would never turn, she threw herself into a room full of
zombies. I couldn’t stop her in time.”

Jason’s face was white. Wade looked like he
instantly regretted asking me what had happened. I forced a smile.
“It’s over now. Her pain is gone and…and maybe she’s with her
baby.”

“I like to think that,” Jason said softly.
His eyes moved to the sinking sun. “What now?”

“We need to find a safe place for the night,”
Hayden said. “We have to take more precautions than before to stay
safe from crazies.”

“The farmhouse…” Jason started. “Nah, never
mind.”

“What?” Hayden asked.

Jason nervously glanced at me. “Riss’s
grandparent’s house was safe. We left food and weapons there. And
it’s close.”

All eyes fell on me. I shrugged. “We don’t
know if it’s still safe. When we left, a herd was passing through.”
The thought of home swelled in my heart. I wanted to go so bad it
hurt. I wanted to walk through the front door and hear the creaky
floorboards. I wanted to sleep in my bed.

My bed.

Jason went on. “There are bars over the
windows and the doors are boarded up and reinforced. The place is a
fortress.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said. “We left
for a reason.”

Jason nodded. “It was just an idea.”

Hayden’s fingers pressed into my side. “We
can always drive by. I know it’s nice to be somewhere familiar
anyway,” he added quietly.

“Ok,” I said. “Let’s go. There are a few
places nearby we could stay if the house isn’t in good standing
anyway.” I moved to the back of the truck, pulling my blood soaked
shirt over my head. I tossed it on the ground, seeing no point on
bringing something so dirty along with us.

“You’re sure you’re ok with this?” Hayden
asked. I pulled a pale yellow tank top over my head.

“Yes. It’s just a house.”

“We both know that’s a bunch of bull,” he
said, half smiling.

I put the bow and quiver up front and got in.
“You’re with me so I’ll be fine.” I looked down at my left hand. A
chunk of skull stuck to my diamond. Grimacing, I peeled it off and
flicked it out the open window.

Hayden got in the driver’s side and started
the truck. He reached over, linking his fingers through mine and
started the drive to the farmhouse.

Just like last time, it was dark when we
rounded the curve in the road near my grandparent’s farm. Nerves
bubbled in my stomach, twisting into painful cramps. I tugged on
the end of my braid, preparing myself for the worst.

The images flashed through my mind: the
house, burned to the ground. All the bars pried off the windows,
zombies stomping around the house, so full of the undead we
couldn’t get in. I couldn’t get another image out of my head, and
it frightened me the most.

I closed my eyes and it flashed through my
brain. We would pull into the driveway and see the distant yellow
glow of lights. My grandpa would open the door, with a gun turned
on us of course, with Aunt Jenny behind him holding a pistol of her
own.

Hayden reached over, taking my hand so that I
couldn’t pull on my hair. He linked his fingers through mine,
giving them a squeeze. I opened my eyes and looked at him. We would
be all right.

“They can go first,” he said, meaning Wade
and Jason.

“No.” I shook my head. “It’s just delaying
the inevitable. Besides, if it’s bad we’ll need to move on as soon
as possible. It’s dark and dense.” I cast my eyes to the thick tree
line. “Anything could be lurking.”

“You sure?”

“It’s just a house,” I told him, letting go
of his hand. “We can find another.”

Hayden tightened his grip on the steering
wheel. “Right.” He knew it wasn’t just a house to me. And he also
knew that I needed to convince myself it was true. I had to, just
in case…

“Turn here,” I told him. Hayden cranked the
wheel, pressing hard on the brakes. “Shit.” Bodies lined the
street. The truck lurched to a stop, headlights illuminating the
pile. Arms and legs twisted unnaturally.

“What’s going on?” Wade asked over the
radio.

“Bodies,” I answered. “In the way.”

“Zombie bodies?” he asked.

I rolled down the window and was immediately
hit with rank air, confirming my suspicions. A pile of non-infected
bodies wouldn’t have lasted much more than a day. They would have
been eaten. “Yes.”

Hayden put the truck in park and turned to
me. “We have to move them.”

“Put it in four-wheel?” I questioned.

He shook his head. “I don’t want to risk an
arm or something getting caught in the wheels.”

Grass and weeds crept over the shoulder and
onto the road. The foliage was thick on both sides and clouds
covered the moon.

“Ok,” I said and unbuckled my seatbelt.
“Let’s be quick about it.”

“I should do it,” he started. “Since I can’t
get infected.”

“There’s gloves in the back,” I added.

Hayden’s face tightened; he wanted me to stay
in the truck where it was relatively safe. I grabbed gloves from
the backseat and tied a bandana around my face, covering my mouth
and nose. We got out, doubled checked that our guns were loaded,
and got to work while Jason and Wade kept watch.

The night was alive with the peaceful hum of
crickets and frogs. The gently breeze made tonight’s air perfectly
tolerable. It was the kind of Kentucky summer night that I loved,
the kind of weather for sneaking out my bedroom window and running
to Raeya’s or meeting a boy that my grandpa would never approve of.
Every window in my grandparent’s house would have been open, and
the heat wouldn’t creep in until late the next morning.

I looked up at the cloudy sky. It was so
dark. If not for the headlights streaming at us, I wouldn’t have
been able to see into the trees at all. I pulled on the gloves and
moved to the pile of dead zombies. The pungent smell of rotting
burned my eyes.

They must have been here a while. Their
wrinkled, rotting skin had melted off, sliming off their bones and
onto the pavement. I curled my fingers around a zombie’s wrist,
having to peel her arm off the street. Bits of sticky skin stayed
behind. My fingers mushed into a crispy layer of fat that covered
muscle. Her ligaments had dried up and hardened and rolled under
the fat as I pulled.

Maggots wriggled out of her empty eye socket,
sprinkling the road as I dragged her away, dropping her arms when I
reached the side of the road. I went back and grabbed the ankles of
another zombie. He was piled atop of several other bodies; I had to
give him a good tug before he came free. Face dragging along the
rough road caused his skin to rub off, leaving a nasty smear of
festering flesh.

I picked another that was on top of the pile.
I pulled on its arm. The bones cracked and muscles snapped. I
stumbled back when the arm ripped off. Melted tissue dripped onto
my feet. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and tossed the arm aside. I
leaned over, closing my eyes to keep them from watering. The smell
of rotting was so strong it seeped into my soul, gagging me. I
hoped that we could get the showers working again.

I grabbed the back of its jacket, heaving it
up and off the pile. Half of its head was missing, cut clean off by
a very sharp blade. The remaining half of the brain was shriveled
up to almost nothing. Curious, I turned it into the headlights.

There was a gap—about an inch wide—between
the dark, festering coils of brain matter and the skull. I narrowed
my eyes, moving my face closer to inspect the black spots that
covered the inside of the skull.

Behind me, Hayden was still moving zombies.
He picked up a body with ease, tossing it to the side. I tipped my
nearly headless zombie down and carefully stuck a gloved finger
inside the skull, rubbing the black spot.

There was a shuffling close behind me. “What
are you doing?” Hayden asked as he lifted another zombie by the
ankles.

“There’s something weird in its head,” I told
him. The blackness wiped away. I held up my fingers, looking at the
dust that covered the gloves. Interesting. Right away I thought
about telling Dr. Cara about this new discovery, even though I was
mad at her.

I let the zombie fall to the ground, its open
skull cracking like an eggshell when it hit the street. I bent over
to pick up his ankles, dragging him away by his feet. I stepped a
few paces back and over another body.

A hand stuck out through a gap between
torsos. Fingers curled around my ankle and yanked me toward an open
mouth. The zombie growled, pushing its way through the cleared off
path to freedom…and food.

I dropped the zombie I had been dragging and
yanked my foot up, breaking the grasp. But I moved too fast and
slipped when my foot landed, my boot pushing through another
zombie’s stomach. I fell back.

“Riss!” Jason yelled. Hayden looked up and
let go of the zombie he was moving. I scrambled away, bringing my
leg up toward my chest. The zombie crawled out of the mangled mess
of decaying bodies. A wrinkled flap of skin hung from his forehead,
looking like a scalping gone wrong.

He let out a gargling roar, reaching for me
with blood-crusted hands. I kicked him, heel connecting with his
bottom jaw, breaking it and causing it to hang loose. I brought my
leg up again and kicked him in the nose. The bones crushed in and
thick brown blood slimed down his face.

Branches crashed against each other to my
right. I whipped my head to the side. Fuck.

“Guys!” I yelled and kicked the zombie in the
face again. My hands slipped, and I flopped onto my back, head
cracking against the pavement. The pain rippled through me, ears
instantly ringing.

The zombie pulled free from the hive of
bodies. It was right there, over me, mouth open wide. My vision
blurred as the pain radiated from the back of my head, banding
around like a vice.

Then blood splattered my chest and the tip of
a knife popped through the zombie’s forehead. Hayden yanked his
knife back, shoving the zombie to the side. He reached down. I took
his hand and scrambled up.

“You ok?”

“Yeah,” I said, rubbing the back of my head.
“Fucker was alive the whole time, just hiding out.”

“You hit your head,” he said, moving his hand
to feel for a lump. “I heard it smack.”

“There’s something about this location and
head injuries,” I mumbled. Leaves crunched. Hayden jumped back,
holding his knife out, ready and in position. We heard her before
she emerged from the trees, crashing into branches and tripping
over the underbrush.

Hayden flew forward, swiftly moving his arm
up, sending the knife into her skull. He yanked it out before she
dropped. Blood sprayed up in the air. He kept his eyes on the trees
for several seconds before turning and scanning the pile. “A few
more and we can go.”

I nodded, still feeling the effects of the
fall, but rushed over to the pile. I dragged two more bodies to the
side before we deemed it clear enough to drive over. I peeled the
gloves off and threw them in the bed of the truck and shook my
boot. Stinky, slimy stomach contents stuck to the material.

I looked at it, disgusted, when it hit me.
There wasn’t just undigested zombie food stuck to my laces. There
were bits and pieces of chewed people. And for all I knew, it would
be people I knew. The thought made my heart race and pound in my
ears. I got in the truck, slamming the door shut.